Monitor Lizard at Sinhalese Sports Club. (Courtesy: Screengrab Sony Sports Network/X)
An uninvited guest in the form of a monitor lizard interrupted the only Test between Sri Lanka and Afghanistan on Saturday as it entered the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo. The incident took place during the 48th over before Afghanistan medium pacer Nijat Masood was about to bowl his third delivery with Angelo Mathews on strike.
The monitor lizard entered the boundary rope and walked close to it, seemingly after losing its way. The umpire signaled to halt the play as the monitor lizard continued to walk near the rope. Later, an assistant umpire was seen hurling the monitor lizard as it walked away from the boundary rope, allowing the match to resume.
Watch the incident here:
We had an uninvited guest on the field today 🦎😄#SonySportsNetwork #SLvAFG pic.twitter.com/1LvDkLmXij
— Sony Sports Network (@SonySportsNetwk) February 3, 2024
The hosts had taken a first innings lead of 17 runs at that point. Mathews was batting at 46 while his fellow partner Dinesh Chandimal was on 31 when the incident took place. Earlier, Sri Lanka openers Nishan Madushka (37) and Dimuth Karunaratne (77) stitched an opening partnership of 93 runs to give the hosts a good start.
Meanwhile, after being put into bat, Afghanistan were bowled out for 198 runs with medium pacer Vishwa Fernando picking up for wickets. He was well supported by his fellow bowlers Ashita Fernando and Prabath Jayasuriya who scalped three wickets each. Afghanistan top-order batter Rahmat Shah was the pick of the batters for the visitors as he scored a resilient 91 off 139 deliveries.
